Re: OT: March to support BP. Your pension depends on it!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Yvonne saying something like:

Fuck off and shave your minge.

[geoff]

In message , Yvonne writes

And who the f*ck are you with your history of meaningful contributions?

[Huge]

A contribution holiday they were legally obliged to take. By the same Government that was busily stealing my pension.

[Clot]

Quite. Something I've never fathomed. When times are good, fill the pension pot. I bet there were many companies that wished to then.

[Mark]

We can hope they see sense sooner rather than later. Up to now they seem to be stealing money out of everyone's wallet to bail out public sector pensions. Part of my council tax rises over recent years have been for this very purpose, for example.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The bit you see on council tax is a very tiny tip of a gigantic iceburg. Local government pensions are actually funded - you're just topping up funds which are short on liability. However, most government pensions have no funds at all, and are paid for entirely by taxpayers 'pay as you go'.

Since I wrote that article several days ago, I've heard two radio programs both addressing this point. One thing I didn't know - it turns out there is a significant bulge of staff about to transition into retirement which is going to whack up the government pension costs very disproportionately over the next several years, over what's happened in last several years.